49ers' Seifert Not Getting Credit That He Deserves

Warner Hessler -

January 19, 1991|By WARNER HESSLER Staff Writer

It's been almost two years since Bill Walsh left coaching, but still there are days when the San Francisco 49ers are regarded as his team.

Aren't the 49ers still winning Super Bowls, mostly with the players he selected, and with his scripted, innovative offense that somehow blocks everybody most of the time while getting up to five receivers into the pass pattern? Rival National Football League coaches haven't figured out how to stop it yet, have they?

Then there are days when the 49ers are quarterback Joe Montana's team. On some Sundays, the 49ers are even receiver Jerry Rice's team, or safety Ronnie Lott's team.

It seems the 49ers, who are two victories away from an unprecedented three straight Super Bowl titles, are everybody's team but George Seifert's.

And it's too bad because Seifert is the reason the 49ers are in position to do something it could not do under Walsh.

True, the 49ers won three Super Bowls in nine years with Walsh, but there are those who swear they might have won a few more had Walsh done less self-promoting, been less concerned with sharing credit with Montana for the successes, been more involved in overall preparation, and created fewer long-running controversies within the organization.

If the dull, colorless Seifert did as much self-promoting as his former boss, if he were bent on making the 49ers George Seifert's team by hogging the spotlight and imparting a few clever one-liners on the media, the NFL would rope off space for him in the Hall of Fame.

Seifert has a 32-4 record in his first two seasons. No coach in the 70-year history of the NFL has jumped out of the gate so impressively. He can also become the first coach to win Super Bowls in his first two seasons.

And if he does, the 49ers will still be Walsh's team, or Montana's. Which is wrong.

What Seifert does best is let his talented team play without distractions. That's important. Just ask the Minnesota Vikings.

The next thing he does best is get a team prepared. He's a defensive genius, no question about that, and he's used that knowledge of defenses to help prepare offensive game plans.

He's also quicker than Walsh at recognizing the mood of his team. He leaves them alone if they appear properly focused in practice and tears into them if they appear lax.

He won't let a team go into a game unprepared or overconfident as Walsh did following the 1987 season. San Francisco, the best team in the NFL that year, was eliminated by Minnesota, and Washington won the Super Bowl.

Had Walsh recognized the overconfidence in practices before the game and done something about it, we might be talking about the 49ers going after a fourth straight title.

Seifert didn't like the lax attitude before the final regular season game against Minnesota three weeks ago and tore into the team something fierce. The 49ers perked up, won that game, beat Washington last week and appear to have a proper playoff focus.

Make no mistake, this is Seifert's team, but it'll probably belong to somebody else after it beats Buffalo in the Super Bowl.

Here are this week's predictions:

Buffalo Bills 23, Los Angeles Raiders 16 - These are not your typical AFC teams. These teams aren't as light, lively and as likely to be embarrassed in the Super Bowl as Denver was in recent years. The defensively-tough Bills and Raiders could hold their own with the NFC heavyweights. Buffalo winters won't bother Los Angeles, but the Bills' superior talent will.

San Francisco 49ers 27, New York Giants 19 - An all-New York Super Bowl would be no big deal in Tampa. Having 50,000 hard New York accents in one Florida city isn't that unusual. An all-New York game would be a big deal in NFL circles, though. If quarterback Jeff Hostetler of the Giants outguns Montana, there should be an investigation.